


And the Open Sky Above Them

by lemonsharks



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Treat, Trick or Treat 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-30
Updated: 2016-09-30
Packaged: 2018-08-18 16:59:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8169259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lemonsharks/pseuds/lemonsharks
Summary: Alistair and Tabris almost-kiss. This is what happens the next night.





	

There’s so much _space_ , trees gold with autumn and elfroot stalks drying crisp in air that has an edge on it. Tabris shrugs down into his cloak, twitching the edges tight around his front. Even the thin wool is a better barrier than most of the stuff he’d had back in the Alienage. 

They’ve miles yet before they reach the village of Haven, most of them straight up, and he finds he almost, _almost_ misses cobbled walks underneath his feet. Not enough to go back, no, but there's a curious lump between his lungs as a bright-red leaf detaches from another tree and drifts easily down before him. Tabris reaches out and it nearly lands in his palm, settling instead in the dust and dry grasses that line the path. 

He leaves it where it falls.

Alistair walks just ahead of him, ascending the twisting mountain path with sure, easy steps, and Tabris can very nearly feel his breath upon his lips from the night before--they’d come so close to a kiss, leaning inward toward one another by the fire, telling stories in the quiet of their shared watch. 

But he’d blinked, and Alistair pulled back, and where did that leave them in today’s dying light? 

They make camp, four bodies busy against a world of horrors just outside their line of sight, and as he did most nights, Sten took the first watch. 

With rations eaten and tents pitched, he had a bit of time and few chores left. He took a cold, clean breath and pressed a waterskin into Alistair’s hands, motioned for him to follow to the stream and felt something in his spine loosen when Alistair followed. Morrigan would laugh, as she did, or snicker without so much as raising her hand to her mouth, and Sten would accuse him of wasting time. Still, he had to _know_.

The sky was big above them, cloudless and cold without the city smoke and light to muddle the pinprick stars’ flickering. 

They filled the skins in silence, and Tabris put his aside still half-empty, then turned to his companion.

“Last night, when--”

“--It was--” Alistair set his skin aside as well and turned, facing Tabris by the stream. 

“--Don’t say ‘nothing’, I might just crack if you say--”

“--I don’t know what it was. This is all new to me, monsters and demons and--”

Alistair blushed, the apples of his cheeks and edges of his ears turning dark with heat, and Tabris couldn’t let this chance go. He wouldn’t. 

He touched Alistair’s forearms with open-palmed hands, feeling the light brush of hair beneath his fingers. Tabris closed his eyes, and opened them again, and leaned forward for a real kiss this time. 

Alistair’s eyes widened, but his mouth was pliant beneath Tabris’s, with cold lips and a warm, strong tongue that moved against his own delightfully. He pulled back too soon, and watched Alistair, who’d closed his eyes, and seemed very intent on just _breathing_. 

“Do you know what that was?” Tabris asked, the edge of a laugh on his voice.

Alistair shook his head and licked his lips, swallowed before he spoke. “I think I might have liked it, though.”

Tabris smiled, and leaned in for another. 


End file.
